The Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and the even-broader Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) are both modelled after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). These agreements are typical bureaucratic monstrosities of "managed" trade that masquerade as free trade and would expand NAFTA to include first Central America and then the rest of the Americas in an economic "union." True free trade would take a few pages of written text to enact ("eliminate these barriers to trade and these tariffs," etc.); all three of these agreements encompass thousands of pages of bureaucratic textual garbage sprinkled liberally with rules, regulations, and special-interest benefits.

Buried in the language of CAFTA is Section 6 that would require of all its members that they form a Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) committee for the purpose of insuring ongoing harmonization under the terms of the SPS Agreement in the World Trade Organization (WTO). You can find that text at the following website: www.ustr.gov/Trade_Agreements/Bilateral/CAFTA/CAFTA-DR_Final_Texts/Section_Index.html.

If you then look at Article 3 of the WTO’s SPS Agreement, you will read the following words: "To harmonize sanitary and phytosanitary measures on as wide a basis as possible, Members shall base their food safety measures on international standards, guidelines or recommendations." (emphasis added) And as you all know by now, Codex sets the international standards for food safety including vitamins & minerals.

So, CAFTA, which is set for a vote in the House of Representatives when they reconvene July 11th, 2005, is another critical link by which health-freedom haters hope to bypass the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 and obligate the United States and Canada by treaty to harmonize to the harshly restrictive Codex vitamin-and-mineral standards. They cannot be allowed to succeed, and we at the NHF completely oppose these two treaties that would put a knife in the back of our health freedoms.

* CAFTA has already passed the Senate in a 54 to 45 vote on July 1st, 2005.
* Legislators have just recessed for one week, reconvening July 11, 2005.
* IMPORTANT- For House consideration, when they return, the Senate Bill 1307 (click here to view bill), ratifying CAFTA, can be voted on without going to committee. It is on the House calendar and may be brought up at any time.

ONLY ONE WEEK TO ACT. CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES. URGE THEM TO VOTE AGAINST CAFTA NOW.

YOUR LETTERS WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE. THE VOTING IN THE HOUSE WILL BE CLOSE. WE HAVE ONE WEEK TO FLOOD THEIR OFFICES WITH CAFTA OPPOSITION LETTERS.

PLEASE JOIN IN THIS EFFORT AND CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES.

Contact any member of the House of Representatives via www.house.gov/writerep

National Health Federation
P.O. Box 688, Monrovia, CA 91017 USA
(626) 357-2181
Fax (626) 303-0642
Website: www.thenhf.com
E-mail: contact-us@thenhf.com